‘Yes. Then after World War Two you sold it, and it was torn down?
(How well I remembered!) ‘Tom down to build the Harriman Hilton. Yes.’
`Well, Grand Hotel Augustus is the Harriman Hilton. Oh, after more than two
centuries not much is the same structure, but the continuity is there. We researched
it, and that’s how we located this VIP suite that is not known to the public.’ He
rubbed his cheek against my knee. ‘That’s all, I guess. Hilda?’
‘I think so.’
‘What a moment!’ I protested .’What became of that baby? And the man with the bloody
stump? The one with his arm chopped off in that accident.’
`But, Maureen,’ Hilda said gently, ‘I tell you three times: it was not an accident.
That “baby” was just a prop, a lifelike animation, to keep your hands busy and your
attention distracted. The “wounded” man was a piece of grisly misdirection while
they injected you – an old amputee with make-up; he wasn’t freshly maimed. When I
had my driver hanging over the snakes, he became downright loquacious and told me
many details, mostly nasty.’
`I’d like to speak to that driver!’
‘I’m afraid you can’t. I don’t encourage employees to sell me out, Maureen. You are
a gentle soul. I’m not.’
‘The surgical teams will be’ – we were gathered in a lecture room in Ira Johnson
Hall, BIT, and Jubal had started his briefing – ‘matched as nearly as possible in
professional background. Tentatively they are: Dr Maureen with Lapis Lazuli as her
scrub nurse; Dr Galahad with Lorelei Lee; Dr Ishtar with Tamara; Dr Harshaw – that’s
me – with Gillian; Dr Lafe Hubert a.k.a. Lazarus, with Hilda; and Dr Ira Johnson
with Dagmar Dobbs.
Dagmar, your match with Johnson Prime is not too close; you are over-qualified by a
century and a half, plus whatever you have learned here. But it’s the best we can
manage Dr Johnson will not know that you are assigned to him. However, we know from
library research and from quite a lot of oral history research – interviews
conducted by field agents in Coventry and elsewhere in the years 1947-50, recording
the experiences of persons who served in civil defence first-aid teams in that war –
we know that team-up between surgeon and nurse could be last minute, scratch, either
one of them not fully qualified. Battle conditions, Dagmar. If you get there first
when the sirens sound – and you will – Dr Johnson will simply accept you.’
‘I’ll try ‘
‘You will succeed. All of us assigned to first aid will be wearing gowns and masks
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that won’t look odd in wartime England, 1941, and you’ll be using surgical
instruments and other gear that does not scream anachronism… although anachronisms
won’t matter much, we think, in the pressure of a heavy bombing raid.’
Jubal looked around the hall. ‘Everyone in this operation is a volunteer. I can’t
emphasise too often that this is an actual battle you are going into. If you are
killed in England in 1941, history may be revised – but you will be dead. Those so
called “iron bombs” used by the Nazi Luftwaffe will kill you just as dead as an
exotic weapon of a later century. For that reason all of us are volunteers and
anyone can quit right up to H-hour. All of Major Gretchen’s young ladies are
volunteers… and are on max hazard pay, as well.’ Jubal stopped and cleared his
throat, then went on.
‘But there is one volunteer we don’t need, don’t want, and who is urgently requested
to stay home.’
Jubal looked around again. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, what in the hell are we going to
do about Pixel? When the bombs start falling and the wounded start piling up at that
field station, the last thing we need is a cat who can’t be shut up and can’t be
shut out. Colonel Campbell? He’s your cat.’
My grandson Richard Ames Campbell answered, ‘You have that the wrong way around,
Doctor. I don’t own Pixel.
Whatever ownership there may be points in the other direction. I agree with you that